Just 7% of workers involved in green jobs in Fraser Valley

All the people employed in “clean economy” businesses in the Fraser Valley wouldn’t fit into the Abbotsford Centre. But despite the sector’s growth, less than one-in-ten workers are involved in green jobs.

A report on the region’s environment-friendly economy suggests that green businesses employed just over 11,000 in the Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD) in 2016. The FVRD stretches from Hope to Abbotsford and Mission, but doesn’t include Langley. And those workers helped generate more than $2.45 billion worth of economic activity that year.

The 11,000 jobs constitute about 7.4 per cent of the region’s workforce.

By far the biggest chunk of activity recorded was in the “sustainable resource and ecosystem management,” which the report says includes agriculture businesses involved in “farming, greenhouse growing, food processing and waste-to-energy operations.”

That sector produced about half of the region’s green jobs.

In addition to those employed at “clean economy” businesses, the report estimates that the sector indirectly supports another 10,000 workers.